


Look After

by arthur_pendragon



Series: the one where Merlin's a child [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Merlin, Deliberate Misnaming, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 06:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18405227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arthur_pendragon/pseuds/arthur_pendragon
Summary: Marlin/Martin/Melon/Mervin comes to wake Arthur up in the morning.





	Look After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brunettepet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brunettepet/gifts).



> i think you might have to read the previous fic in the series for context about all the misnaming Arthur does and i'm sorry if it gets old after a while but it made me laugh so i kept it in

“Arthur. Arthur. _ArthurArthurArthur_.”

It seemed to be in the prince of Camelot’s fate to be woken up by an annoying child every morning, and that morning did not deviate from the rule.

He grumbled something in response and turned over, only to be treated to the breath-expelling _flump_ of said annoying child’s leap onto the mattress and immediate subsequent trip over Arthur’s outstretched legs. Arthur cracked an eye open and glared. Melon beamed at him sunnily, sprawled across the bed. “Morning, sire!”

“How in heaven’s name do you get past Morris and the guards?” Arthur groaned. “I’ve been on their case about it for weeks now, telling them to keep you out.”

“No, you haven’t.”

No, Arthur hadn’t, but there was no need for Melvin to know that.

The impossible little boy scrambled to his knees and started pushing at Arthur, as if to roll him out of bed (Arthur, just as stubborn as Martin, refused to budge under the _adorably_ weak force, and instead drew his blankets further up with a snort disguised as a grunt). “I’m always invisible,” Merry boasted, shoving and shoving in vain. “They never notice.”

“Well, you’ll have to show me one of these days,” said Arthur without thinking, and promptly regretted it as Marlin met his gaze, eyes flashing gold, and disappeared. The weight on his knees didn’t, however. Arthur sat up and poked at a bit of air he thought was Maximilian’s side. Melville yelped.

“You know, Malachi —”

“— _Mer_ lin —”

“— Marion —”

“— _Merlin_ —”

“— Marvin, you do know that you can’t do your… sorcery”—Arthur hissed that last word—“all over the place just because you’re under my protection. If you get caught, we’ll both be in heaps of trouble from Father. And worse, _Gaius_.” He imagined that that last threat would sound scarier than even Uther’s death penalty to Mirin now.

There was a pause, and then Merton popped back into visibility. “Gaius calls it _saucery_ ,” was all he had to say on the topic before he leapt off the bed as nimbly as he’d leapt on, and made his way to Arthur’s breakfast table, where there was laid out a feast. Arthur swung himself out of bed, too; Melchior was already in Arthur’s seat, dwarfed but unperturbed by the size of it, helping himself to figs and cheese, _damn it_ , he always went for Arthur’s favourites first.

“Out of my chair,” Arthur barked half-heartedly, but Maurice didn’t even flinch, interestedly peering at the other items on the tray — and it was a large one, because Arthur had taken to requesting extra food and a little milk in the morning and letting everyone think he’d developed a big appetite, the reason for it occupying Arthur’s rightful place. Sentiment would be the death of him in the end, he knew. But Arthur would be damned if the sight of Meriadoc scoffing soft, warm bread and chewing with his mouth open didn’t fill his heart with emotion.

“Insolent brat,” he muttered to save face, sitting down in the bloody visitors’ chair across the table.

“Today?” Marius piped up, fingers inching towards the jug of _something_ that Hunith of Ealdor would excoriate Arthur for letting near her son.

“In your dreams,” Arthur said, and slid the jug to the edge of the table, far away from Matias’s limited reach. Malcolm scowled, but this was an exchange he was more than used to, Arthur hoped. “So, what are my duties for today?”

Marcel brightened instantly, and pride gleamed in his eyes as he rattled off the list he’d probably taken over an hour the previous evening to memorise under the guidance of the seneschal. “Morning council, audience with your subjects — I have a complaint I’ll make then, so you have to be there — private meeting with the king, noon training with the knights, then you’ve got the newbies to weed through. Oh! You’ve got to knight Gwaine and Lance, you’ve just got to, they’re so _cool_ and I know you’d love them both. They always give me copper coins that I can buy herbs for Gaius with. And then there’s your afternoon bath, but that’s not a duty, is it? Unless it’s your duty not to smell rank for the sake of everyone else. Let’s make your bath a duty. Then you’ve got evening patrol around the borders of the lower town and then dinner with me and Gaius and Gwennie and Morgie ’cause Gwennie’s lonely because she misses her dad and I know what that’s like ’cause I miss my mum”—Miro stopped here for a deep breath and an unsubtle wipe of his eyes that made Arthur clench his jaw—“so I told her she could eat with you and me and Gaius, and Morgie wants to come because she overheard me talking to Gwennie and doesn’t like dinner with King Uther. And then you’ve got to sleep because it’s your duty to be well-rested to look after your subjects’ welfare.”

Arthur, who had only followed whatever _that_ had been by dint of his royal education, nodded. “D’you ever wonder if you pose a barrier to that last bit?”

Merrick frowned slightly, but then twigged. “Oh,” he said. “Would you rather I didn’t come to wake you up? Duty before friendship, Gaius always says.”

The genuine hesitation and hurt in Milton’s face sent guilt rushing through Arthur, even though it had just been gentle teasing on his side. “Of course not,” he sighed. “I do enjoy having a living, breathing shadow of my own.”

Mordecai was all smiles. “Good,” he chirped. “I’m never gonna stop being your shadow.” Having finished with his share of the breakfast, he ran around the table to Arthur and clambered onto his lap for a hug. “Thank you,” he said in Arthur’s ear, breath warm against his skin.

Arthur crushed Melon to him, tightly, wondering at his capacity to love. “I’ll see you at the audience,” he said. “Don’t forget to come bother me when I’m with those stuffy old knights.”

“Promise,” Mervin whispered, and then he ran off, ostensibly to reassure Gaius he hadn’t up and vanished.

Arthur finished his food in the kind of silence that he would have enjoyed once upon a time.

* * *

 

There was much hilarity in the court when it was discovered that a certain annoying eight-year-old child’s most grievous complaint was that his Crown Prince was _a soo-per-silly-us prat_.

Arthur watched his father crack a grudging smile at said annoying child with that impertinent grin, and decided not to get back at the brat later.


End file.
